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Sunday, October 16, 2016

Five Things I Learned from My 100 Days Project

So for anyone keeping track, back in August, I decided to
do a 100
Days Project wherein I would write something every day for 100 days. But
my last entry was written on Monday and today is Sunday. That’s basically a
whole week where I haven’t written anything here. And I think I’m done—at least
with this project. So the real title of this post should be: Five Things I Learned from My 60 Days Project.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Writing is still my number one. I
still do it, in some form or another, every single day—both for my day job and
for fun. And doing this for the last 60 days has actually taught me a ton:
about priorities and timing and choosing the things that are really important. Here
are a few of the things I learned:

You can make time:
When I first started this whole thing, I was most worried that I wouldn’t have
much time to dedicate to it. I work a full time job, have a house and a family
and a whole bunch of other boring life responsibilities. But I found that,
since this was something I wanted to do, I could find the time when I needed
it—in the morning, after Luca went to bed, on my lunch hour. And I also found
that since JB knew how important it was to me, he was up for helping me find
the time too.

Three times a week is
a charm: What I did notice though, was that I really only wrote things that
I felt were of quality about three times a week. The other days, especially on
Fridays and Saturdays, often felt forced—I was doing it more because I had to then because I wanted to. And
while I know that sometimes the best things comes out of holding yourself
accountable, I also want to be able to put the time into the things I actually
want to write. Which is basically how I ended up at 60 days instead of the full
100.

But off the cuff
works too: But then there were the days when I had nothing and I sat down
in front of a black screen and something came out. Some of my favorite pieces ended up being written that way: the were about values we want to pass on
to Luca (this is one of my all-time favorites, actually), on the importance of
practice, and on being mindful.

Inspiration is
everywhere: That’s a super trite statement, I know. But the truth is it’s
the truth. I learned this from my magazine days, but if you’re paying
attention, ideas are all over the place. In the moment that makes you stop in
your tracks. In a podcast you listened to. In a conversation you had. Hell, in that
random thing you overheard or that comment you read in that Facebook group you
just can’t seem to pull away from. Of everything this project has made me think
about, this is the one I want to keep on hand the most. Realizing that even the
most mundane, everyday things are full of inspiration and meaning is the secret
to making it all worthwhile, I think.

So here we are, 60 days out, and I’m pretty proud that I’ve
kept it up this long. I’m still going to write as often as I can, and I’m so
happy that I was able to find this space, to find myself here, over all this
time.

It’s been like getting back to the core of things—and now it’s
figuring out what it all looks like from here.